Girls and Boys
by A-QueenOfFairys
Summary: After Odd unwittingly insults both Yumi and the rest of the female population, he finds himself having to learn the hard way that he was wrong and deal with the consequences when Xana gets involved in plotting a revenge. Genderbend, Odd's POV
1. Just Your Average Xana Attack?

**Description: **After Odd unwittingly gets himself into a fight with Yumi, he never apologises for making a sexist comment. Actually, he continues to make more of them and digs himself into a hole. When he goes to sleep that night, he's definately not expecting Xana to get in on Yumi's revenge plans, and ends up having to spend the rest of the day putting up with the consequences. But there's more to the attack than expected, and everyone's finding it confusing just to find out what the heck's going on.  
Set in the middle of season 2, after A Fine Mess and before Franz Hopper.

**Warnings: **Small references to mature content. Some sexist comments.

**Ships: **JxA, UxY, mild UxO later on.

**Disclaimer: **Inspired by an artwork by ~WMW123xD on deviantART, she gave me permission to write this. So the idea belongs to her, not me.  
Code Lyoko and all related characters belong to Moonscoop.

When I see some artworks, I always get thinking about various outcomes and things that would happen, etc. and this is the product of one of those. If anyone is offended by the sexist comments, please let it be known that I'm a girl too and I found it difficult to write them! No offense is meant, really! I don't think I quite captured Odd's personality correctly; he'd probably be freaking out if that really happened. But I'm not sure how to write like that. So just try and enjoy what I've got here ;)

Also, this has nothing to do with the Good Charolette song. It's a good song though, go listen to it.

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* * *

_

_BOOM!_

"That's the last of the monsters, great job guys!"

I hopped up from my crouching position and turned to Ulrich with a grin, holding up a hand for a high-five that he gladly accepted.

"Score another one for the guys!"

Same old routine; Xana activates a Tower, we go to deactivate it, Xana sends some monsters to stop us and we defeat them all with ease.

Although there was one thing I'd noticed about this last fight, "And how many is that for you, Yumi? Zero?"

The Japanese girl placed her hands on her hips defiantly, "So I'm not having a good day, it happens to everyone, even you!"

I shrugged, "I know, but this has been going on for about a week now."

"He's right," Ulrich agreed, "What's up, Yumi?"

"Nothing, really. I'm just distracted, is all."

"What, by Ulrich?" I put a fake dreamy look on my face, "He's so handsome when he fights, isn't he?"

"Odd!" the unison was uncanny.

Ulrich pulled me closer and made sure we had our backs turned to Yumi, talking in a hushed voice, "When I tell you not to mention my re– _nonexistent_ relationship with Yumi, I mean _do not mention it_."

"If it's nonexistent like you say, why shouldn't I be allowed to?"

Ulrich opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, grasping for a response. Eventually he growled and hit my forehead with his forearm.

"Alright, you got me this time. But Yumi must be distracted for some other reason, got it?"

"What, like, because she's a girl?"

"What?"

I whipped around to find Yumi glaring back at me. Maybe I might've said that too loud…

Still, there's no way I'm going to give up an argument without a little defence, even if it is Yumi I'm fighting with, "Well it's a true fact that boys have larger muscles than girls do."

Yumi tilted her head to one side, walking forward slowly, "And yet I'm stronger than you. Girls have larger brains than boys, but Jérémie's smarter than me. So your argument doesn't prove anything."

I shrugged, "Then how come all the sport reports on the news are always about men? There are hardly any women. People are just more interested in watching the guys, because we're so much better."

Yumi continued to glare as Ulrich nudged me with his elbow, "You're digging yourself into a hole, good buddy…"

He's got a point, what am I doing? Yumi would make short work of me when we got back to Earth, why am I doing this?

Heck, I can't drop an argument like this. It'd make me look like a coward.

Yumi seemed eager to continue, "Men just love seeing other men bash the heck out of each other. You're driven too much by your adrenaline, making you do all kinds of stupid things a girl would never even think of."

"Um…" Jérémie's voice echoed around us, "Sorry to interrupt your battle of the sexes, but Aelita deactivated the Tower a couple of minutes ago, I think you should be getting back…"

"Got it, Jérémie. Do your thing."

Even as the three of us started to disappear, Yumi never stopped glaring at me, probably plotting her revenge for later.

* * *

I yawned, lying back on the bed. All these night time Xana attacks can really leave a guy drained…

"That was a really stupid thing to say, you know."

I rolled over to face Ulrich, who was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling, "I didn't expect her to hear!"

He nodded, "Yeah, but you didn't have to start an argument. She's going to punish you for it later, you know."

Sighing, I rolled onto my back again. Ulrich had a point; if anyone was a master of revenge around here it was Yumi. And we're not just talking the embarrass-you-in-front-of-the-entire-school kind of revenge, sometimes she got violent. And that was never a good thing.

"I don't get what you see in her, she's too scary."

Ulrich sat bolt upright, "I do not have a thing for Yumi! Nonexistent relationship, you hear?"

"Yes, I do hear." I stroked Kiwi's fur gently, "And so will everybody else if you don't quiet down soon enough."

He settled back down again, "Whatever. Just don't think you'll be let off lightly for this. Oh, and I'm not pulling you out of whatever trouble you'll get into."

I don't doubt that. Tomorrow's going to be a big day.

"Why _does_ she always get mad like that?"

"I don't know. Maybe she doesn't like her pride to be hurt. Now just go to sleep, will you?"

* * *

"Odd, wake up."

I flinched as I felt a heavy object fall on my legs, probably some sort of book.

"Every morning we go through this, why can't you just wake up on time for once?"

I shifted, trying to block out the daylight with the blankets. I really didn't want to get up; I had a bad feeling about today.

"Oh right, you're worried about what Yumi will do to you."

Yes, actually. Maybe if I pretend to be asleep he'll leave me alone.

"If you're not up by the count of ten, I'll make you get up."

I groaned in exasperation, "Fine."

I swear there was something different about my voice, but it's probably nothing. It should go away.

Sitting up, I swivelled around so my feet were resting on the ground and started rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

Ulrich let out a small yelp, "Uh…hey, you know that battle of the sexes you had yesterday?"

"How could I not? Yumi's going to kill me…" There it was again, my voice sounded more…feminine than usual.

"I don't think she'll have to. Looks like Xana already did it for her."

"What?" I looked up at him, confused. He had this really surprised look on his face.

It was then I noticed the hair.

I had a few bangs hanging in front of my face. I would've passed it off as a restless night working the gel out of my hair, but I know for a fact that it's not that long. It had to be a couple of inches longer now, and wavy. My hair's not meant to be wavy.

But it wasn't just my hair; my entire body felt different. No, tell me Xana didn't…

I was afraid to look down, but I already knew what was wrong. Looking would mean that my fears were confirmed. I don't want that. No, that can't happen. There's no way it could be possible. Xana had no way of making it happen.

And yet, looking down, I realised it was true.

Somehow, Xana had turned me into a girl.

I screamed.

And it wasn't just a yell, it was a full-on, high-pitched scream.

It ended as soon as Ulrich clamped his hand over my mouth, "Be quiet, or Jim will hear you!"

I struggled out of his grip, "Be quiet? How am I supposed to be quiet after something like this?" I stood up and walked over to the cupboard, wrenching the door open to look at the mirror.

"I don't know, just try to-"

"Ulrich? Odd? Are you ok? I heard screaming. I thought I saw an active Tower last night, but I wasn't sure…"

We both relaxed slightly as we recognised the voice on the other side of the door as Jérémie's.

"Yeah, nothing major, Jérémie."

"Nothing major? You think this isn't a problem?"

"Whatever," Ulrich opened the door to let Jérémie in as I turned back to the mirror, "You might want to see this, Jérémie…or you might not."

I heard a muffled gasp from said genius as I ran my fingers through my hair. It doesn't feel right, this can't be happening.

I took a deep breath, I've got to try and look at the good points. I guess I didn't look too bad as a girl. If it wasn't really me on the inside, I'd say I was…pretty, even. I'd totally date me. Just thinking about myself like that seems so not right.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realised I looked like my sister. Ew.

Looking further down at my reflection I had a sudden realisation that brought a vibrant blush to my face. I had breasts. Well it was probably better than having a flat chest as a girl, but still.

"Odd, are you ok?" Jérémie still hadn't moved away from the door, but at least it was closed.

"No…" I sat down on my bed, holding my head in my hands, "My head hurts."

Jérémie cleared his throat, "It's probably just taking a bit of effort to get used to…um…" His words were reduced to stammers every now and again.

"Oh, yeah?" I stared up at him. Rhetorical question.

"Stern! Della Robbia! What's going on in there?"

I froze up as Jim's voice boomed from the other side of the door, cursing in Italian. Next thing I knew, I was being pushed down onto the bed and under the covers, followed by a "Shh" from Ulrich, I think.

I got into a sleeping position as I heard the door open.

"I heard a girl scream, what are you doing in here?"

"Oh, Ulrich and I were just watching a video, Jim." I'm guessing Jérémie had pulled his laptop out to try and trick our PE teacher.

"Yeah, it's a horror film. A real shame Odd's not awake to watch."

Ok, there's the excuse. Let's just hope he buys it.

"I'm surprised he's still sleeping with the volume that loud, I heard it from upstairs!"

"Oh, sorry Jim. I'll turn it down right away."

"Good. Don't let this happen again, you hear? And you'd better be down to breakfast in half an hour!"

"Sure thing, Jim!"

The door closed again and heavy footsteps signalled Jim's departure. I breathed a sigh of relief and sat up again.

"Well…" Jérémie swallowed, "Looks like we have a big problem on our hands."

I frowned, "Can you fix it?"

"Probably, it shouldn't be that hard. For now we need to figure out how to hide you from the rest of the school."

Ulrich shrugged, "We could get Aelita to help."

"Uh…right. I'll go get Aelita…"

With that, the blond hurried out the door, shutting it behind him.

I stared hard at the wall, "Don't say it."

"Say what?"

"That I was mean to Yumi yesterday and seriously deserved all of this."

"I wasn't going to."

"Sure."

I turned to Ulrich; his voice seemed kind of distracted when he made those comments. Following his gaze I realised why. He was staring at my chest. Probably unintentionally but it was still creepy.

"Don't look at me like that!"

He blushed and quickly looked away, "Whoa, sorry! I didn't realise. It's just strange, is all…"

"Speak for yourself."

Thankfully it didn't take long for Jérémie to arrive with Aelita. She didn't seem as phased by my change as the others had been.

She looked thoughtful, turning to Jérémie, "I'll call Yumi and we'll see what we can do." She pulled out her phone.

Oh, great. Of course Yumi had to get involved, she's one of us, but I would've preferred it if she didn't find out.

Ulrich whispered into my ear, "Yumi's going to love this."

I glared back.

"Well at least she's less likely to punish you herself now!"

"Good point."

Aelita slid her phone back into her pocket, "She's meeting us in my room. We'd better get over there while there aren't many people around."

"Right," Jérémie nodded, "And I'll start looking at ways to reverse this."

I brushed some of the hair out of my face, "Better make it quick, Einstein. There's no way I'm going around for a whole day looking like Adèle."

"Like who?"

"Never mind."

I followed Aelita out the door, rather annoyed, and prepared for the mad dash upstairs. I knew today wasn't going to be a good day.


	2. I'm a Girl!

"Ok…" Aelita panted, "Yumi should be here…in a few minutes."

I nodded, also panting but not as much. While I wasn't good at long distance runs, I could cope better than she could at a short sprint. We had to make sure nobody had seen us.

I hadn't really felt any difference between running in my normal body compared to as a girl. I don't know why I thought there would've been one, oh well.

Finally breathing normally again, Aelita walked over to stand in front of the cupboard, "We don't know how long it'll take for Jérémie to fix the problem, so you'll have to-"

"Let me guess, I'll have to dress like a girl for the day."

She nodded shyly.

"No." Sure, nobody outside our group would know it was me if I could keep up the charade I had already planned, but Ulrich and Yumi would never let me hear the end of this.

"Look at it this way, if you're not dressed by the time Yumi gets here…"

"Good point." I sighed, "Ok, fine."

I thought I saw a bit of a smirk as she opened the cupboard doors, "You're about my size, at least we don't have to go raiding anyone else's clothing."

That would be awkward. Plus then my cover-up plan wouldn't work.

A thought occurred, "Do you own anything except dresses?"

The pink-haired girl slowly backed out from behind the door with an apologetic look on her face, "…no."

"I don't know why I even bothered to ask."

She returned to looking through her clothes, "Do you want to choose something or should I?"

I shrugged, "Surprise me."

I know Aelita won't pick out anything too embarrassing. Yumi on the other hand, I didn't want to think about it. After what I did to her when we switched bodies, it could be seen as the perfect revenge.

"Um…" Aelita was starting to get a pink tinge to her cheeks, "Do you mind wearing those boxer shorts for the day?"

Ahh, here comes the uncomfortable subject of underwear, "Not at all."

"Ok." She picked a few items of clothing out of the cupboard and closed the door.

"I'll go get some pants from your room…"

She quickly walked past and dropped the pile of clothes in my hands, her cheeks turning redder by the second. She was out the door soon after.

I wondered what could've made her blush so much as I sorted through the clothing. A light purple short-sleeved dress cut above the knees, a long-sleeved magenta skivvy, a light pink scarf for decoration and a bra.

Oh. That's why she was blushing before. Makes sense, I'd be embarrassed too if my friend suddenly switched genders and I had to lend them my underwear.

Might as well get this over and done with before Yumi shows up…

Reluctantly I took off my shirt and rushed to get Aelita's clothes on.

I bet the others are over having a great time at my expense. Ok, I admit it; I deserve this. Hopefully it can't get any worse from here on in.

What am I thinking? Of course it will.

The sound of the door opening urged me to look up. Drat, it was Yumi. She wore a massive smirk on her face as she leaned against the door frame.

"Nice dress."

I'm wearing a dress. Although it seemed a little less alien than it should have been. My sisters enjoyed dressing me up in girl's clothing when we were younger.

"Actually it's Aelita's."

"And there I was last night, all the way home, plotting a way to get back at you. I owe Xana a thanks, this is far better than anything _I_ could've come up with."

I scowled, "I knew you'd enjoy this."

"Of course! It's the perfect way to teach you a lesson about gender equality."

"You're not being too harsh on him, are you?" I relaxed as Aelita entered with a pair of my pants. She handed them to me and I gladly pulled them on under the dress. It felt too…bare without them.

Yumi pushed me over to a mirror, smiling evilly, "See? Don't you look pretty now?"

I shoved her away, "Oh, be quiet."

"Although we need to do something about the hair." She stood beside Aelita and placed her hand on her chin to appear thoughtful, "The tangled, just-got-out-of-bed look really isn't in anymore."

Aelita smiled and nodded along while I just continued to glare at Yumi. She looked like she was having the time of her life as she grabbed Aelita's hairbrush off the desk.

I backed away as she tried to come closer, "You know what? I'd feel a lot safer if Aelita did that."

"All right, fine." She handed the brush to Aelita, "I'll just get back at you later."

As Aelita brushed the tangles out of my hair, I found myself thinking about what Yumi would do to me. Although none of my ideas could compare to what she'd come up with.

"There, done." Aelita set the brush back down on the table, "It looks a lot better now."

"Thanks." I wasn't really sure what else to say.

Nobody said anything after that, and I began feeling really awkward. Yumi was still smirking at me, and Aelita was staring absentmindedly at a wall. I didn't feel hungry for once. Actually I was also kind of surprised how long I'd managed to go without blowing my head off at someone for making fun of my predicament. Maybe girls weren't as emotionally unstable as I thought.

Maybe.

The sound of a phone vibrating broke the silence, ringing clearly in the absence of any other sound. Aelita pulled it out of her pocket and answered it, "Jérémie?"

She didn't have her volume turned up very loud, so all I could hear from the other end was a muffled voice.

"Ok, we're on our way." She pressed the call end button, "Jérémie says to come to the factory so he can figure out what's going on and how to fix it."

"Ok." Yumi headed out the door, followed by Aelita and then myself. Aelita turned around to lock the door before we left.

I stopped once we reached the boy's floor, "Wait, I need to go get some stuff." Without waiting for an answer, I headed towards my room.

"But what for?"

Shrugging, I turned back to Aelita, "Well you'll hardly want me in your clothes when I change back, right?"

The young girl blushed and looked away, so I took it as a yes.

"Oh, and I'm also not wearing shoes."

With that, I hurried to retrieve my normal clothes and some decent footwear.

* * *

**Ok, there are seven chapters total in this (I'm planning ahead! It's a miracle!) and this is as far as I've gotten. I was originally going to post it all at once, then I realised I didn't really want to do that. If I can keep up this pace, I should be done soon. Plus another Survivor chapter. Here's hoping :)**


	3. Shopping Spree

I stepped out of the scanner feeling slightly tired. Jérémie had run a scan on me to see if he could figure out what had happened, and how long it would take to fix. It'd better not take long.

It was a short ride to the upper floor that housed the Supercomputer's mainframe where Jérémie sat. The others were sitting around against the walls, but Aelita got up to look at the screen as I came in, "Well, Einstein?"

Jérémie was still tapping at his keyboard as I approached. The screen was covered with various windows, most of them filled with various codes and stuff I didn't understand. The active code would always been scrolling quickly as Jérémie put more and more into the program. He kept switching windows quickly too, I have no idea how he could keep track of all of that. But there were a few windows that had pictures in them; our Lyokô avatars.

"Xana somehow managed to completely rewrite your DNA without using the scanners."

"Hm," I rolled my eyes, "I've gathered that much."

He ignored my comment, "There's only one major problem I could find while looking at the data…"

Aelita looked concerned, "What is it?"

"If I can't get you back to normal by this afternoon, your hormones and mind will be so used to the change that it'll be permanent."

Ok, that did it, "What? Permanent? And just how am I supposed to explain that to my parents; their only son comes home one holiday with a sex change!"

"I can fix it, Odd. It'll just take time."

I folded my arms, biting back a response.

"It'll take me a couple of hours to write a reversal program, so you'd might as well find something to do until then."

"He's right, you know." Yumi draped her arm over my shoulders, "It'd be far too boring staying here until Jérémie's all finished."

"Actually I'd rather-"

"So you're going to come shopping with us instead!"

"What?" So this is what she had planned. Not good. I don't care if it didn't look strange for three girls to go hit the shops, but never in my right mind would I go willingly!

I backed away, "No."

"Ohh, yes. You're coming whether you like it or not." She had that evil smile on her face. Evil.

Taking a couple more steps back, I shook my head, "You can't make me."

She was on me in a flash, I screamed as she picked me up off the ground and hoisted me over her shoulder. I tried to struggle but she was holding on too tight. I would've hit her if she wouldn't have dropped me onto the hard metal floor.

"Off we go then!"

As she started to walk off, I noticed Jérémie and Ulrich stifling laughs.

My cheeks started turning red again and I continued to struggle, "Put me down!"

"Not until we get outside, then you'll be holding my hand _aaaaall_ the way there!"

She started laughing triumphantly as she walked us into the lift. Ulrich had looked kind of stunned at the holding-her-hand comment.

"I get to hold Yumi's hand, you jealous?"

He started to blush and attempted to give a response which ended up just being a series of stutters.

Yumi's, however, was a lot more to the point. I flinched as she dug her fingernails into my ankle.

"Say that again and you're dead."

"Uh-huh," I nodded, "Nonexistent, right Ulrich?"

Yumi still didn't let go when Aelita hit the button and the doors started to close.

Jérémie and Ulrich put on fake smiles, "Have fun, you three!"

It's at times like these when I could wish I could death stare two people at once.

Surprisingly, Yumi did let me go when we started our ascent, but she didn't drop me, simply placing my feet on the ground gently.

"Let's get one thing straight; if you even think about running off once we're up there, a soon as you're back to normal I'll personally make sure you make it out with more than just bruises."

I stood at attention, "Yes, ma'am!" Oh joy. I'm not out of the woods yet. It doesn't seem fair, isn't the gender swap enough, dammit? But there's no way I'm voicing those complaints to Yumi, I'd have to save it for later.

Soon enough, the lift reached its destination and I reluctantly followed behind Aelita and Yumi towards the ropes. Hopefully we wouldn't run into anyone we knew.

* * *

I stayed quiet the whole way to the shops, but Aelita and Yumi were pretending to have a girly conversation to try and annoy me. I tuned out after they started talking about clothes shopping. I don't see how shoes could possibly be of interest to anyone, they're just _shoes_, who cares? Speaking of stereotypes, I wasn't really interested in cars and motorbikes like some boys. Art and music are far better than any machine built for transport.

Turns out Yumi didn't want to hold my hand after all.

"Hey," Aelita put her hand on my shoulder, bringing my thoughts back to Earth, "We've decided to stop for breakfast at that café over there since we missed eating anything this morning."

I looked up to where she'd pointed to see a small café painted a light yellowish colour. It also had an outdoor eating area on the footpath, it looked rather welcoming.

I simply nodded and followed after the two girls, realising my hunger had come back after this morning's shock.

I don't think I've ever been to this one before, which is a shame. The inside of the café was painted a deep reddish brown. The furniture was made of a black metal shaped into various elaborate patterns. It wasn't completely packed or entirely empty at this time of morning, so it was easy to find a table with three seats.

After placing our orders Aelita and Yumi continued their conversation while I stared at nothing in particular. I found I was eventually getting bored out of my mind as they kept talking even after our food arrived.

"Check it out Aelita, she's eating like a proper lady!" Ok, I know it would've sounded strange if they'd called me 'he' like I would've preferred, but it could've caused problems if people nearby overheard.

Still I frowned and automatically kicked out at Yumi's leg under the table. While my kick didn't have much force, hers did. And it hurt. I doubled over onto the table, careful to avoid hitting my plate.

The girls just laughed.

"You know what, Yumi? We ought to do this more often!"

I groaned, ignoring them and taking a sip of the hot chocolate.

"Odd?"

That annoying, high-pitched voice made me jump, spitting the mouthful of chocolate back into the mug rather ungracefully. Of all the people that had to see me, why did it have to be her?

"Wow, you've really let yourself go haven't you?"

I turned to face the principal's daughter with a confused look on my face, "Did you just say Odd?"

She had probably spotted me on her way out of the café. She was with some people from our class, and a couple from Yumi's.

"Well yeah," she scoffed, "That's your name, stupid."

"Oh, you must be Sissi!" time to put my plan into action, I was ready for this, "Odd's told me a bit about you."

Sissi laughed, "Oh, this is rich! First he dresses up as a girl and now he's pretending to be a whole other person! Where's Millie and Tamiya when you need them?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm not Odd."

"What?"

"I'm his sister, Adèle. Would you happen to know where he is? I've been looking for him all morning." As much as I hated acting as one of my sisters, it was probably the only way of getting out of this. Unfortunately I do actually look like Adèle.

She frowned, "Then how come you look the same?"

"Maybe," One of her friends leaned over, "They're twins?"

"_Twins_?"

"Oh, no no no. I'm three years older than him, but we look identical." I shrugged, "Dunno why. It's actually not very nice, looking just like Odd…" I faked a shudder, Sissi seemed to buy it.

"I know! I mean, if there was one person I'd never, ever even think about going out with, it'd be him!"

Oooh, harsh. Although I must say the same; if there was one girl I'd never ever want to go out with, it was Sissi. So I guess we're even. Normally I would've tried to build myself up to appear good in their eyes, which I should be, but since I was pretending to be Adèle I had to keep to her personality, not mine. Drat.

"I see we agree there! He's such a dork of a brother. And I know I've already asked but, do you know where he is?"

She shook her head, "No. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him at all this morning."

"Ah, he's probably hiding again. That always seems to happen when I'm around. Don't know why though!" I started laughing, a fake, irritating laugh that Adèle would never use. But I don't like her, so I'm going to. So there.

Sissi's friends took a couple of steps back but Sissi herself seemed oblivious, "But why are you dressed in purple?"

"Ah, I like to steal his image. Since I'm the elder one, it makes him look unoriginal."

"That's so clever! Well I'll see you later then?"

"Sure, I'm looking forward to it!" I smiled sweetly as she exited the café, and then quickly dropped it as soon as she was out, "Not."

"Adèle?" Aelita finally spoke up, it seems like she'd been completely ignored by Sissi, "Is she really your sister?"

"Yup." I took a bite of my croissant, "One of them, unfortunately."

"What does she look like?"

"Imagine me right now, but without the purple. Seriously, we look exactly the same. I hate it."

Yumi leaned forward, smirking, "You must've really enjoyed putting yourself down just now."

I shrugged, "Not really."

Aelita frowned, "Does she actually act like that?"

"Mhm, normally she's all quiet and stuff. But when she's with the others she's just as bad as them. Once they band together there's no escape." I hated being the only boy in the family; they'd always gang up on me. I'd spent whole nights locked in the bathroom, and been pushed into the worst situations. My parents always they believed they were innocent, though, so they were never punished.

"Well," Yumi stretched, "I think we should be heading off."

She took Aelita's hands with an excited look on her face, "Shopping spree!" they chimed.

"Girls…" I muttered.

* * *

"You know what that is, _Adèle_?"

"Yes."

"It's the shopping centre!"

"I know."

We had just entered a large building that housed the shops. There were a couple of cafés here and there, but it was mostly for clothes shopping. All the grocery stores were detached; they had their own building somewhere nearby.

We passed a fair few Kadic students who kept giving me strange looks, but it'd be ok as long as I remembered to keep up the Adèle charade.

"Hey, Aelita how about that one?" Yumi pointed off to a clothing shop a few metres ahead.

Aelita played along with the act and agreed, "Sure, looks great!"

The Japanese girl grabbed my arm, "Come on Adèle!"

She was serious about this. She was actually going to force me to come in there. I can't go in there! It's not right at all!

I pulled back, "Aren't you anti-fashion?"

"Hey, you remember what I said earlier about trying to run off?"

"Ok, fine." I let her drag me along to the shop. I bet the only reason she's doing this is to get me back for what I said yesterday. Maybe if I just apologised she'd leave me alone, but it wouldn't change the fact that Xana turned me into a girl.

Just as we almost reached the store, an arm in front of my face forced me to stop in my tracks. I followed it to its owner; Julien Xao. He was smirking.

"What's up, Della Robbia? You finally decided to show your feminine side?"

"No, I'm his sister Adèle. Now if you'll excuse me-"

I tried to duck under his arm but he grabbed my shoulder, forcing me against the wall.

"Oh, no. If that's the case, I'm not letting you off that easily. You're staying right here with me."

"Oh yeah, why's that?" I struggled a bit, but his grip was too strong.

"'Cause it means I can tell you that you're one smokin' hot babe."

He caught me completely off guard with that last comment, so I did what instinct told me to do and slapped him. Hard. It made a very loud sound that attracted the attention of all the people around us.

"Leave me alone, you creep!"

And he did, taking this chance to run out of the centre before it caused too much commotion.

I felt Yumi's hand on my shoulder just as mine started to sting from the impact, "Not bad."

I turned my hand over and looked at it, the skin on my palm was turning red and it stung badly, "I had no idea it hurt so much to not be on the receiving end of a slap."

"Yeah, but it's worth it right?"

"I guess…"

"Ok, we're done here. Come on!"

I growled as she continued to pull me along to the shop.

It was filled with racks upon racks of just clothes. Dresses, shirts, jumpers, pants, skirts…it was horrible.

"Come on, they're just clothes. Who cares?"

"Just clothes? Are you insane?"

For not apologising and allowing her to do this to me?

"Probably."

She raised one eyebrow before turning back to the clothes. Will she ever give it a rest?


	4. Of Spectres and Fairies

I watched as Yumi and Aelita rushed off deeper into the shop, unsure whether to follow or not. They were walking in and out between racks of clothes pretending to be interested in trying some on. I really wanted to leave, but if Yumi found out…

Well it's not like I'm leaving the centre itself, I could just pretend to go to another shop and go look at buying video games or something. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a bad idea. I needed some new DS games soon anyway.

So I did just that, wandering out of the store while the girls were distracted.

I realised I was becoming more and more used to the fact that I was a girl. Maybe Jérémie was right, that I didn't have much time before it'd be irreversible. Hopefully he'd made some headway on that program by now.

I wandered through the crowds on my way to the game shop, fiddling with the end of the scarf Aelita had lent me. I didn't want to stay like this, I wanted to just go back to normal. There was no way I could be stuck like this for the rest of my life.

Just as I was nearing the shop, I noticed a figure in the crowds that I recognised all too well. I was probably just seeing things, but if it was who I thought it was, I had to go check.

He'd disappeared behind a crowd of people, heading towards a walkway on the left. I followed along it, taking a couple of turns here and there as I noticed a piece of purple clothing disappear behind a wall. Eventually I came to a dead end. It was a new part of the shopping centre, so all of the shops were still being built. There was nobody there.

Of course, it was a trap.

I spun around to run back out the only exit, but there was someone stopping me. Or rather, something. But it looked like someone. It looked like me, normal me, before Xana had done that crazy gender swap trick.

It was my height, with _my_ normal hairstyle and _my_ normal outfit. The only difference was the distinctive eye of Xana replacing its pupils.

It started walking forwards, so I started walking backwards. I'd run into a wall soon. I didn't have anywhere to go, and it knew that.

Suddenly it charged with the speed of any of Xana's spectres. I tried to run, but it grabbed me around the waist, holding my arms against my side.

"Hey, I'm not _that_ pretty, Xana. Now let me go before I slap you like I did that other guy!"

I tried to put more force into my voice, but the spectre didn't seem fazed. Instead of letting go, it threw me at full force into a wall.

I'm pretty sure I hit my head, but everything was too fuzzy to tell, "Pleasant…"

Despite how much it hurt, I couldn't stay there. I would've loved to have been able to just lean back against that wall and rest off the headache, but with one of Xana's spectres in the same room it wasn't recommended. Speaking of, I heard electricity crackling and I knew it was the spectre preparing a ranged attack.

I slid out of the way just as the purple lightning hit the wall, leaving a smouldering black burn on the wall. Better it than me.

The spectre wasn't blocking the way to the exit anymore, so I ran. The walkways kept veering left and right, and still I kept going. I'd run out of breath soon, but I couldn't stop. No, I refuse to die this way. No way am I going to die a girl!

Eventually I reached the main area, where there was a large crowd of people milling around before the stores closed at lunch time.

"Hey, slow down miss! No running in the centre!"

I stopped, gasping for breath, and turned to the security guard, "Sorry…had to…urgent…sorry!"

I had to find Yumi and Aelita again, as soon as possible. I'd be able to easily blend in with the crowds here so it would be less likely that I'd be found by the spectre, but it also meant I couldn't find it either. On the plus side, if it did attack me here, it'd cause a ruckus. No, Xana would want to do this without as much public attention as possible.

"Just don't let me catch you doing it again, ok?"

"Ok, si-" I was cut off by a sudden blaring noise. The fire alarm.

Everybody stopped where they were, looking around in a panic. There were various cries about where the fire was and what was going on, but I knew there was no fire. The spectre must've set it off to get me on my own. Well, it wasn't going to work. I hoped.

I walked towards the exit with the rest of the people that had enough sense to leave the building. I reached for my phone, only to realise it wasn't there.

"No, I must've left it behind!" Now nobody could contact me, or vice versa. Not good.

Well the girls would have to be evacuating too, with everybody else. As long as I could stay with the crowd, I should be able to find them outside and head to the factory from there.

But obviously Xana had other plans, because the spectre was waiting for me. I was still in the center of the building, nobody would be able to look through the doors and see me getting stuck inside. No, and even the people hurrying past didn't notice. They didn't stop to make sure the strange girl in the middle of the centre was going to make it out safely, and they didn't stop to question the strange symbols in the eyes of the Kadic student standing nearby.

Ok, so maybe its plan to get me on my own _was_ going to work.

Soon enough, we were the only two left in the building. The alarm was still blaring, either they'd soon realise that there wasn't really any fire, or the fire fighters would arrive. The spectre obviously planned on getting rid of me before either of those happened.

It ran at me at full speed, tackling me to the ground and pinning me with one arm. It drew back a fist with the other, charged with electricity and aiming for my head. But what I said before still stands, Xana or no, I will _not_ die as a girl, dammit!

This time I easily managed to slip out of its grip, dodging out of the way just in time to hear its fist zoom past my ear. I upped and started running again. Yet more running, great.

When I looked back the spectre was struggling to get its hand out of a hole in the ground it had just created trying to kill me.

I smirked, "Too slow!"

But I made a mistake in thinking everything was ok and looking back to the ground in front of me. I wasn't expecting the electric blast that hit me in the back, sending a shock through my body and me face-first onto the tiles. I tried to get up, but my back stung like heck and I was feeling really lightheaded. With a fair bit of effort I turned around to look back at the spectre. It was walking towards me, building up more and more electricity in its hands as it got closer.

I've been in tonnes of situations like this. We all had, and none of us have died yet. Aelita always deactivated the Tower in time. Yeah, I'm sure she's about to do just that. She'll input the _Code: Lyokô_ onto her little screen and everything will be fine. Everything will be fine…

"HIYA!"

Suddenly the spectre was knocked to one side by a black blur. They disappeared behind a wall for a moment, then the black thing re-emerged and ran towards me.

"Come on, we have to go!"

That voice, I recognised it, "Yumi? Yu-"

She slowed down but didn't stop running, grabbing my arm and jerking me to my feet, "Jérémie called me."

She kept running, but I didn't. As soon as I tried pain shot through my entire body from the place the electricity had hit. I fell onto the floor again with a scream, unable to move.

Yumi stopped and turned around, "Odd, we can't stay here!"

"I-I…I can't…I can't…" I couldn't talk, I couldn't move, I couldn't think.

Then she did something I really wasn't expecting, picking me up and hoisting me onto her back like she was giving me a piggy-back ride. If only it were that simple.

She started running again, "Jérémie called and told us the active Tower he saw last night was never deactivated, it was just hidden. He couldn't figure out why, though."

I smiled, "It was the fairies…" followed by a dreamy laugh, "The fairies can do stuff like that, you know? And they can fly too!" I held my arms out straight like an aeroplane's wings.

"Wheeeeeee!"

We came to a stop in a bright place where lots of people were standing around. I frowned, "It's really bright out here. Go back in there."

"No." she gave me a strange look.

"Aw, why not?"

"Because that spectre will kill us both!"

"Nah," I waved one hand to dismiss her idea, "The fairies will take care of him!" looking up, I spotted a pretty-looking girl with pink hair. Pink hair…pink is a nice colour.

"Look, there's one now!" I grinned.

She was looking really worried until she spotted us, looking only slightly less concerned afterwards.

"What happened to him?"

I looked around, "Him? Who's him?"

"She means you, stupid." Yumi frowned, "Now stop playing dumb, it's not funny!"

"Me? But I'm a she! Any normal person could see _that_!" I pouted. Silly Yumi thinking I was a guy…I take that as an insult. So why does it seem so vaguely familiar?

"The spectre must've done something to him."

"That guy? He's mean. You should go use your magical fairy powers and wish him away!"

The two other girls looked at each other for a moment before the one with pink hair spoke up, "We should get to the factory now, before it catches up."

"But," I frowned, "If you don't wish it away, it'll stay there forever and hurt more people!"

"Don't worry, Odd," she smiled, "I'll make the bad spectre go away."

* * *

**Yeah, that last bit at the end? He's in a stupor from the electric blast. Jérémie will explain later on. Just imagine he's drunk or hyper or something (I get that way when I've had too much sugar 83) Admittedly, I just wanted to write something about fairies :/ I like fairies.**


	5. To Lyokô, About Time!

"Do you think you can walk again?"

Yumi put me down at the edge of the bridge, out of breath. She'd carried me all the way to the factory while I was in my stupor from the electric shock, too out of it to run.

"Yeah…I think so." I had a headache, but at least I wasn't ranting on about fairies anymore…Yumi will _never_ let me forget what happened today. Stupid spectre.

I tried walking a couple of steps without her help, I was still a little shaky and my back still hurt but it was a start.

The spectre would almost have caught up by now; while we couldn't see it it had probably turned into that weird black ooze all of Xana's spectres are made up of.

"We don't have much time, it must nearly be here by now."

The two girls nodded in response and we all took off at a run towards the entrance. It wouldn't be long before we were back on Lyokô and this nightmare would be over…

Just as we were about to reach the ropes, though, a figure came out from behind the wall. It was too fast for me to register who it was; all I saw was this figure appearing out of the blue, and suddenly I was on top of it, on the ground. I feared the worst, hoping it wasn't the spectre, and it wasn't.

It was Ulrich.

And he didn't look too happy, either. Although he _was_ blushing, so was I. I was lying on top of my roommate. Who was a guy. And I we were blushing.

"Get off me!" Just as quickly as that had happened, I was on my back on the ground beside where he'd been. Yumi was looking down at me, glaring.

I laughed sheepishly, "That wasn't on purpose, I swear!"

Ulrich had already picked himself up and I did the same.

He dusted himself off, "The spectre's close to the factory, Jérémie told me to come help if you needed it. He's just about finished the program."

Without a word, we followed him down the ropes and into the lift, heading straight for the scanner room and not bothering to stop off at the lab. Hopefully we'd be safe from the spectre until we were virtualised. Honestly it was a little scary being chased around by a clone of yourself who's trying to kill you. But hey, that's being a Lyokô Warrior for you.

"Ulrich, Yumi and Aelita – you go in first." Jérémie spoke over the PA.

As usual, I was left till last. I wouldn't normally complain but I did feel in a rush right now. Because of the spectre coming after me and the fact that I was running out of time before this stupid gender swap became irreversible. Life is fun.

"Virtualisation." A loud whirring noise came from each of the scanners before they opened again, empty.

"Odd, you should probably get changed back before you go. You know, so it's not…awkward when you're back to normal again…"

"Oh, right. I almost forgot." I'd left my clothes bag on the scanner room floor, against the wall. I'd also found a spot that was hidden from the security cameras, just in case Jérémie got any ideas. I doubted it, but you never know.

I got changed quickly, leaving Aelita's clothes in the same bag and heading over to a scanner. But just as I was about to get in, I heard footsteps. The spectre was here. I quietly dashed behind the scanner, taking a cautious peek back out again. The spectre was standing in the middle of the room, looking around to try and find me.

I was ok now, I could think straight and fight fine. I saw no harm in teasing it.

Stepping out, I leaned against the scanner, "What're you looking for? There's not that much down here, you know."

It whipped around and jumped on me in a flash, slamming me up against the wall again. Ok, that was a bad idea.

"Odd, the spectre's there!"

"Oh, really? I had no idea!" I yelled back.

It wrestled me to the ground and held both my arms together with one hand, bringing the other back for an electrified punch. I couldn't get out this time; it was pushing its whole weight down onto my body, and it was heavy. I couldn't move.

Ok, it looked like me, right? Well what were my weaknesses?

…ah. The most obvious one. I could still move my legs, it could work. Actually the spectre was in the perfect position. How ironic that I'd end up hurting an identical copy of myself in this way. This would seriously feel weird later, but did I really have a choice?

Watching its fist build up power, I figured the answer was no. So I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and screamed.

"HIYAA!"

My leg connected in the right spot, any normal boy's ultimate weakness. I knew from experience how painful it could be, but I didn't hear any complaints from the spectre. No cries of pain, no falling backwards, nothing.

I finally opened my eyes and looked up. It was giving me a strange look, but it didn't look pained at all.

"What? How could that not have hu- ohh _spectre_, right." Of course one of Xana's spectres wouldn't have the same weaknesses as humans did. Drat. It would be very convenient, though.

Now I just felt stupid. It looked like me, after all, so it was like kicking me in that area.

Ok, time for plan B. Which I just thought of just now.

I brought my knees up to my chest and kicked the spectre off me. Now why didn't I just do that before? It fell back a couple of metres towards the scanners, giving me enough time to get to one before it recovered.

"Hurry, Jérémie!"

"Got it, transfer: Odd!"

The scanner doors closed, barring the way for the spectre to get to me.

The usual scanning process began, a strange display of bright lights on my closed eyelids. Everything went numb after the final blast of cold air.

* * *

I fell towards the ground of the Desert sector, landing on all fours. The other three stood around me, we could see that active Tower in the distance.

"Nice skirt."

It took me a moment to realise it was me who Ulrich was talking to, but when I did it was still confusing. I don't wear a skirt on Lyokô…

Well apparently now I did. Because that's what I saw when I looked down. Nothing extravagant, just a plain, short skirt the same colour as the rest of my outfit. Oh, and my hair was down too.

I frowned, "Hypocrite."

"How many times have I told you this? It's not a skirt, it's a _kimono_!"

"They look the same to me. Hey Jérémie, when stuff like this usually happens, shouldn't it not alter my virtual form?" This just isn't fair. Haven't I been through enough today already?

"Uh…sorry, Odd. I think Xana must've done it."

I growled, "I swear, if I ever meet Xana I've going to give him a piece of my mind!"

"You can save that for later," Aelita pointed off towards the Tower, "But we've got more important things to do right now."

"Right, let's go." The sooner this is over, the better.

There was no point for Jérémie to send us our vehicles; the Tower wasn't too far away, so we settled for sprinting instead. There were no monsters in sight even as we were two hundred metres away.

"Don't you think it's-"

"No, Yumi, stop. Every time you say that there should be monsters, Xana sends an ambush."

"Hate to break it to you Odd, but you just said it yourself."

"Oh." Drat, now there will be monsters.

Still we pressed on, almost at the Tower. But then I sensed something behind us, and I knew what it was. How could it have followed us here?

I stopped, turning around to face it, "Quit stalking me, will you?"

The others had turned around and walked back towards where I was too.

"Who are you yelling at?" Ulrich asked.

I pointed into the distance, "Him."

Ulrich squinted, now seeing what I was talking about. The spectre had somehow managed to get onto Lyokô, and it was headed this way. Walking slowly, though. It wouldn't be here for a while. But I got the feeling that if we turned around and ran it'd catch up pretty quickly.

It was dressed how I usually was on Lyokô, in the same colours and everything.

Aelita looked worried, "What do we do?"

"Yumi and I will stay behind while you and Odd head for the Tower."

"No, wait." Jérémie interrupted, "We can't leave them on their own, what if some monsters appear while you're fighting the spectre?"

"Hey!" I yelled, "I can take care of myself, you know!"

Yumi rolled her eyes, "Oh yeah? Like the way you handled the spectre back at the shops?"

"Well…that was on Earth, this is Lyokô. I've got better abilities here." I would've said powers, but since Jérémie removed Future Flash…

"Yeah, and so does it!" she pointed, "And it's getting closer too. I'll go fight it, Ulrich can come with you to the Tower."

Ulrich objected, "But why not me?"

She shrugged, "Maybe if I take out most of my anger on the spectre, Odd won't have to suffer as much."

"Great point!" I grabbed Ulrich and Aelita by the shoulders, turning them towards the Tower, "Let's go then. Good luck, Yumi!"

She can't really be serious about still wanting to punish me herself, could she? Isn't she satisfied? I guess I'll just have to wait and see…

* * *

**Ha he kicked the spectre in _that area_.**

**Two more chapters to go...**


	6. This Is It

"Why would Xana make a clone of Odd? Yumi will finish it off in a matter of seconds. Now if it were a clone of myself or-"

"Hey!"

"Yeah, that is kind of weird…" Jérémie agreed. What, is everyone against me today?

"I'll look into it, Ulrich."

"If we hadn't have been in such a hurry, I would've stopped and faced Ulrich then and there, "I'm _not_ weak! Sure, I may not be as strong as either of you, but-"

I was cut off by a laser blast flying right past my face. And just at the wrong time, too.

Automatically we all veered off towards a nearby rock, Ulrich and I peering around to get a look at the welcoming committee; four tarantulas. Great, Xana's pulled out the big guns.

"You were saying?" Ulrich smirked.

"Hey, I didn't get hit, did I?"

"Any news, Jérémie?"

"Yeah, I found something. It's the missing piece of the puzzle."

"What," I frowned, "Xana's playing with jigsaw puzzles now?"

"No, Odd. No matter how much I tried, my program to get you back to normal was incomplete. There was data missing, but it's in that spectre!"

Ulrich looked thoughtful, "So if we devirtualise it then-"

"No, don't devirtualise it. If you do, then we won't have any way of getting Odd back to normal. I've already told Yumi to be careful."

Great, yet another complication. Nice going, Xana. Always trying his very best to make our lives harder. I wouldn't put it past Yumi to just devirtualise it anyway out of spite.

Our conversation was ended by a series of mechanical stomping noises, the tarantulas were on the move. Ulrich and I glanced at each other and nodded, racing off towards the monsters.

The tarantulas stopped coming forwards and sat back on their hind 'legs', aiming their guns at us. We automatically split up and went in opposite directions to confuse them. I wanted to get down lower to avoid the lasers more easily, but instead I came to an annoying realisation.

"Ugh, I can't run on all fours, my hair will get in the way!"

"So that's why it was always up in the spike…" Ulrich didn't glance over, keeping his attention on the monsters, "Well I guess you'll just have to stick to two legs like the rest of us, good buddy!"

We finally reached the tarantulas, still not having taken any damage, and leapt in to fight.

I jumped up on the tarantula's legs, jumping from one to the other until I reached its head.

"Laser arrow!"

I lifted my arm and shot the second one, about to go for the first before I got bucked off, landing on my back.

The monster tried to crush me with its front leg, but I rolled out of the way in time and it started shooting me instead. It was chasing me away from Aelita.

I glanced back to her and, surely enough, the Scyphozoa was after her.

Aelita's memory was more important than my Life Points, so I turned back and started shooting at it non-stop. The tarantula hit me a couple of times but I didn't care. My attack was enough to distract the Scyphozoa and give Aelita enough time to get to Ulrich.

"Odd," Jérémie yelled, "You only have half your life points, be careful! And Yumi just got devirtualised!"

I turned back to the tarantula and shot at the eye of Xana on its head, hitting the bullseye.

"What?" Ulrich looked up at the sky, where we normally look when Jérémie talks to us, "Since when is an Odd clone that strong?"

Just as I was about to object, Ulrich suddenly got knocked aside and devirtualised with a surprised yelp. I immediately rushed to Aelita's side and looked in the direction of the attack. It'd been one of the spectre's arrows, and it was now crouching on the same rock we'd used for cover a few minutes ago.

It tilted its head to one side inquisitively, watching us.

"I'll take care of it. You head for the Tower."

Aelita didn't bother to respond, running off to the Tower. I heard the noise signalling her entry just as the spectre tensed, ready to pounce. It was quick, but I managed to dodge out of the way in time. It landed on all fours and immediately got back up to face me again.

I started backing away, shooting at it. I wasn't sure if it was my panic or the spectre dodging, but only one arrow hit home. And, of course, at a time like this I just had to run out of ammo.

"Jérémie, reload me!"

"I'm on it."

And the spectre was on me. It tackled me to the ground and tried to force its weight down on me. Our fingers were locked together. I tried to push back, attempting to force its arms back up, but it was too strong.

I knew it; girls are weaker than boys. How else could I be losing this fight? Well, Xana _could_ have charged the spectre with extra energy, or it could be because it was on top.

That just sounds wrong…

So I preferred to stick to my original reasoning.

It didn't take long for it to force my arms onto the ground, using my moment of weakness to turn me over onto my stomach and secure my arms behind my back in such a way that I couldn't aim at the spectre, even if I did have arrows.

"Jérémie!"

"Aelita's about to enter the code-"

I struggled, feeling the spectre press its glove against my back, "That's not good enough!"

As Jérémie said, the Tower's glow changed from red to white. But it may have been too late.

It was at point blank range, had it have been a real gun on Earth it would've gone straight through me. But that shot hadn't been deadly, it had just decided my gender for the rest of my life.

I rolled over to face the spectre as I began to devirtualise, wondering if that was the last I would ever see of my male self. Hopefully it wouldn't be, but I'd just have to wait until I get to the scanners…

Just before my vision blanked out, I noticed the spectre was disappearing too.

* * *

**Shorter update than normal. Sorry about the chapter-a-day update rate and then the week-long wait for the next one but I've been either busy, lazy or sick D:**

**On the weekend I didn't feel like writing, on Monday and Tuesday I had half-yearly tests to worry about, on Wednesday I had stomach cramps and caught a cold and yesterday I had to recover from said cold. Fun.**

**Dad convinced me to stay home from school today so I wrote this...**

**Second-last chapter, nearly finished. Then I can get back to Survivor ;)**


	7. Let's Never Do That Again

The scanner room floor hit me hard in the face as I was brought back to Earth. I began to pick myself up, fearing the worst.

Please, please, _please_ let Jérémie's program have worked…

"How're you feeling?" Ulrich came over and helped me stand up.

"My head hurts." Well my voice sounded normal again.

"Yeah, well that's what you get for falling face-first onto the floor."

"Really? I had no idea." I looked up at him with a frown, noticing the hair falling in front of my face. I almost started to panic, but then I realised it was straight and only went a little way past my shoulders. The program worked, I was me again!

I practically jumped away from him, grinning, "But other than that, never felt better!"

He smirked, "Sure you're back to normal, but now you've got to face Yumi."

"Aw rats, I forgot about that…" She can't really want to hurt me after all that, could she?

Ulrich shrugged, still smiling, "You never know."

A hissing noise from one of the scanners signalled Aelita's return. She stepped out looking worried, "Did everything go as planned?"

I nodded enthusiastically, "Yup, everything's back to normal, Princess!"

She smiled sweetly and I moved to retrieve the bag with her clothes in it, "Thanks for letting me borrow these." It felt really awkward saying that with Ulrich standing right there…he was smirking again.

"No problem," Aelita took the bag, "We should get up to the lab, Jérémie's waiting for us."

We headed to the lift.

Pressing the button, Ulrich looked at me slightly confused, "Why isn't your hair up like it normally is?"

I shrugged, brushing a few loose strands out of my face, "Probably because I didn't have any gel in earlier. It makes sense." Just like my clothes wouldn't have fixed themselves automatically, I guess my hair wouldn't have either.

Yumi was waiting for us in front of the door when it opened, "Well, have you learned your lesson, Odd?"

I'd been turned into a girl, hit on by another student, had to act like my sister, been forced to go clothes shopping and attacked by a spectral clone of myself. I think the answer was pretty obvious.

"Yes," I held up one hand and put the other on my heart, "I swear I will never say anything sexist ever again."

"Good." She smiled, "Now I won't have to hurt you." Oh, thank goodness.

"It's a shame, really." Aelita giggled, "I thought you looked cute as a girl."

This got a laugh from everybody, except me. I just shook my head.

* * *

I washed the leftover hair gel off my hands, admiring the familiar yellow spike that was my signature hairstyle. I smiled to myself. I was back to normal, and hopefully I'd never have to go through that again.

Heading out of the boy's restroom, I almost bumped into another boy hurrying along the hallway. He took one look at me and stepped back, scared. It was Julien, the guy who'd approached me at the shopping centre, and now he had a large purple bruise on one of his cheeks. I had to struggle to stop myself from smirking, he'd deserved everything he got. It had been strangely satisfying.

"What happened to you?"

He looked up and did a double take; I'm guessing he first saw me for 'Adèle' and thought she was going to slap him again.

"Oh, it's you, Odd…" Bingo, "Where's your sister?"

"She left about an hour ago, probably because she couldn't find me anywhere."

He slumped against the wall, "That's a relief."

Now I was really finding it hard not to laugh, "Why, what happened?"

"She's insane. Look what she did to me!" He pointed to the mark on his cheek.

I smirked, "Yeah, she's got a lot of power behind those slaps, doesn't she?"

He nodded frantically, "It's not natural! All I did was go and say hello, and she did this!"

As much as I wanted to yell at him that it was a lie, and that he'd actually tried to flirt with her – me – but how would I have gotten information like that if she'd supposedly left before she could find me?

"She's a strange one, my sister. Runs in the family."

Julien started to head back down the hallway, "Well if you ever see her anytime soon, _do not_ mention me!" He started to run towards the stairs for some reason.

"Sure thing!"

Once he was gone, I let loose and laughed 'till I cried.

* * *

**Tiny chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this :)**

**Back to Survivor now!**


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